Sixtyseventh Anniversary of Democratic-secular Constitution

There is no doubt that despite many infirmities the Indian Constitution, as framed by the Constituent Assembly (CA) of India on November 26, 1949, was a fine document of liberal democracy. Its emphasis on an all-inclusive polity assuring social, political and economic justice was, in fact, a continuation of the anti-imperialist legacy. But the Indian Constitution today faces the most critical challenge to its existence. It is true that ruling parties before the enthronement of the Modi Government in 2014 paid lip-service to the pro-people goals enshrined in the Constitution but none dared to declare that they would over-throw the democratic-secular Indian Constitution. It is the first time in the history of independent India that PM Modi calls himself a ‘Hindu nationalist’1 and declares that he is an RSS cadre and groomed as a political leader by Guru Golwalkar.

It is to be noted that the RSS is publicly committed to replace the present Indian Consti-tution by Manusmriti, a Brahmanical scripture which assigns women and Sudras sub-human status. The CA passed the Constitution on November 26, 1949 and the RSS’ English organ, Organiser, on November 30, 1949, in an editorial, rejected it and demanded Manusmriti as the Constitution. It read:

“But in our Constitution, there is no mention of the unique constitutional development in ancient Bharat. Manu’s laws were written long before lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this day his laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits that means nothing.”

Even after independence the RSS kept on denigrating the Constitution of India. M.S. Golwalkar, the only Guru to most of the present Hindutva rulers including our PM and the most prominent ideologue of the RSS, described the Indian Constitution in the following words:

“Our Constitution too is just a cumbersome and heterogeneous piecing together of various Articles from various Constitutions of Western countries. It has absolutely nothing which can be called our own. Is there a single word of reference in its guiding principles as to what our national mission is and what our keynote in life is?”2

Every RSS cadre, including the PM, in everyday prarthana (prayer) worships the Hindu Rashtra and not the democratic-secular India and pledges to accomplish a Hindu state. This can be found from a perusal of the following words of the RSS prayer:

“Affectionate motherland, I eternally bow to you/O land of Hindus, you have reared me in comfort/O sacred land, the great creator of good, may this body of mine be dedicated to you/I again and again bow before you/O God Almighty, we, the integral part of the Hindu Rashtra, salute you in reverence/for your cause have we girded up our loins/give us your blessings for its accomplishment.”3

Importantly, the RSS organ, Organiser, in its issue on the very eve of independence, dated August 14, 1947, rejected the whole concept of a composite nation (under the editorial ‘Whither’):

“Let us no longer allow ourselves to be influenced by false notions of nationhood. Much of the mental confusion and the present and future troubles can be removed by the ready recognition of the simple fact that in Hindusthan only the Hindus form the nation and the national structure must be built on that safe and sound foundation. The nation itself must be built up of Hindus, on Hindu traditions, culture, ideas and aspirations.”

But the most shocking is the denigration of the tricolour or national flag by the RSS. On the eve of independence when the Constituent Assembly adopted the tricolour as India’s national flag, the same organ of the RSS, Organiser, in its issue dated August 14, 1947, denigrated this choice in the following words:

“The people, who have come to power by the kick of fate, may give in our hands the tricolour but it will never be respected and owned by Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil, and a flag having three colours will certainly produce a very bad psychological effect and is injurious to a country.”

If the RSS is dead against the democratic-secular Constitution of India and all symbols related to it, then the question arises: why are RSS cadres, PM Modi and many of his colleagues celebrating the 67th anniversary of the Indian Constitution? As masters of double-speak these rulers are buying time and waiting for an opportune moment to strike from within. In the last two-and-a-half years they have been destroying the democratic institutions of the Indian polity one by one, just waiting to demolish the democratic-secular Indian polity. This plan was outlined by Guru Golwalkar long back in 1940. Golwalkar, while delivering a speech before 1350 top-level cadres of the RSS at Resham Bagh, the RSS headquarters, in 1940, declared:

“The RSS, inspired by one flag, one leader and one ideology, is lighting the flame of Hindutva in each and every corner of this great land.”4

All those who are concerned about the future of the democratic-secular Indian polity must come together to resist the anti-national agenda of the RSS.

Endnotes

1. Modi as the CM of Gujarat interviewed by Reuters at the former’s residence at Gandhinagar, Gujarat, July 12, 2013.

Shamsul Islam, a well-known theatre personality, is a former Associate Professor (now retired), Department of Political Science, Satyawati College, University of Delhi. For some of the author’s writings in English, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu and Gujarati see the following link:http://du-in.academia.edu/ShamsulIslam